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Archive - Archive 2004 - July 2013

Basketball: AfroBasket 2013-Seychelles finish disappointing fourth |25 February 2013

After losing Friday’s semifinal 52-64 to Zambia, the Seychelles men’s team again lost the plot to finish on the losing end in the third place playoff match against Botswana – a team who had not garnered a single win earlier in the competition.

Playing under head coach Tony Juliette in the absence of Clifford Joubert who could not make the trip to Mozambique, the Seychelles team lost the bronze medal match on a 38-62 score against Botswana. The 24-point margin defeat is a slap in the face considering the same Seychelles team had beaten Botswana 71-68 in their second league game.
The Seychelles team also lost 52-76 to Zambia in their opening game and 39-71 to hosts Mozambique to finish the league phase in third position with just one win and two defeats in three games.

Mozambique will represent zone 6 in the Afro-Basket 2013 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast from August 20-31 after winning the final on a 78-38 score against Zambia in the final on Saturday, a day after beating Botswana 86-44 in the semifinal.

Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Namibia, Malawi, Lesotho, and South Africa were to take part in the zone 6 qualifiers but did not.

Winners of the men’s Afro-Basket for a record 10 times – in 1989, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2009 – Angola fall in zone 6, but did not take part in the qualifiers after receiving automatic qualification for finishing as losing finalists at the last competition in Madagascar in 2011.

The Seychelles men’s team took part in the zone 6 qualifiers at the request of Fiba-Africa after not receiving automatic qualification from zone 7 as previously said.

The country was to host the zone 7 qualifiers but all zone 7 countries – Mauritius, Madagascar, Comoros and Djibouti – did not show an interest in taking part.

The winners and runners-up of the women’s AfroBasket tournament in Ivory Coast will qualify for the 16-team 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women in Turkey, while the top-three teams in the men’s event will qualify for the 24-team 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain.

G. G.

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